Thursday, March 27, 2014

Devil's Food Cake With Caramel, A La Tartine Bakery

Sometimes
words fail to convey the enormity of a situation. In the case of the alluring Devil’s Food Cake from Tartine
Bakery, I’ll let this photo speak for itself.

This
recipe knocks it out of the park each time. I made it twice within a
week earlier this month, and it provoked similar reactions on both occasions.Forks crashed onto plates.Knees buckled. Gasps of surprise
mingled with moans of delight. I had people already coming back for seconds as I was still slicing up the cake—a
wild pleading look in their eyes as they extended their plates towards me—long
before I’d had a chance to try a forkful myself, much less grab my camera.Everyone gobbled up this chocolate
madness so enthusiastically at both parties that only a modest wedge remained
for its close-up.

I’d call
that a home run.

I first
experienced this cake several years ago at the justifiably famed Tartine Bakery during my annual San Francisco pilgrimage.It was so compelling and crave-worthy, standing out even amidst all of the other confectionary beauties in the bakery's impressive display cases. I was exceedingly grateful that Tartine had published the recipe in their cookbook, and I immediately
baked a version of it myself upon my return home.

Devil's Food Cake in upper left corner, Tartine Bakery, SF on 8/27/10

The dark
chocolate butter cake, sliced horizontally into four thin layers, is not overly
sweet and has a beautiful texture.It is moist but with good enough structure to support a modest-yet-rich
layer of salted caramel spread over each layer.This in turn is topped with a thin smear of bittersweet
ganache, and the entire cake is enveloped in this dark ganache.A generous sprinkling of toasted cake
crumbs creates a velvety finish, similar to a Brooklyn Blackout Cake.

In a feat
of culinary magic, the caramel intensifies the deep cocoa quality, somehow
making it taste more insistently chocolaty than if the cake had merely been
filled and frosted with chocolate alone.

It is the
perfect marriage between salty and sweet, achieving an excellent balance of tender cake with just a hint of
gooey caramel inside. And I love the contrast of silky ganache with the subtle crunch of toasted cake
crumbs.

This
chocoholic’s fantasy is a seriously indulgent cake that inspires superlatives
and gushing praise from those who are lucky enough to experience it.It has become legendary amongst certain
circles of my friends, with many declaring it the best cake they’ve ever
tasted.In fact, one friend still
talked so rhapsodically about this devil’s food cake years after she’d first tasted
it, so much so that her relatives commissioned me to make it for her baby
shower this month.(See the previous post for fun cake decorating ideas!)

Yes, it’s
a bit labor-intensive, but you will score major points and have considerable
bargaining power after you make this for your loved ones.A cake so indulgent and ridiculous, it
will make you roar with delight and beg for more.It will haunt your dreams. It might be worth making a deal
with the devil, just to have another slice.

Adapted
slightly from the recipe in Tartine by Elisabeth M. Prueitt and Chad Robertson

I have
tweaked the recipe just a bit from the original, decreasing the amount of sugar in
the cake, adjusting the proportions for the ganache and specifying a dark
bittersweet chocolate for the ganache rather than a semi-sweet one.I find the original recipe’s caramel
too sweet for my taste, so I’ve replaced a bit of corn syrup with a touch of
honey and turned this into a salted caramel with a generous teaspoon of sea
salt.I think it contrasts
beautifully with the darkness of the chocolate cake and ganache.This cake tastes best at room
temperature.

Note: You
can adorn the cake simply with the chocolate ganache, but I love it with a fine
dusting of finely ground chocolate crumbs made from the cake trimmings.

Preheat
the oven to 350°. Butter and lightly flour two 9-inch round cake pans, tapping
out the excess flour.Line the
bottom of each pan with a circle of parchment paper cut to fit exactly.

Sift
together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa
powder into a large mixing bowl.

In the
bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium
speed till light and fluffy.(You
can also do this with a hand-held electric mixer, which may take just a little
bit longer.) Gradually add the sugar and continue to beat till light-colored
and well incorporated. Add the
eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a
rubber spatula.

With the
mixer on low speed, add the flour in 3 additions, alternating with the
buttermilk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with the flour and scraping
down the sides of the bowl after each addition.

Divide
the batter equally between the two prepared pans and smooth the tops with your
spatula.Bake for about 45
minutes, switching the position of the pans midway through the baking
time.The cakes are done when the
top springs back when lightly pressed and a tester inserted in the center of
the cake comes out clean.Transfer
the pans to a cooling rack and let the cakes cool completely in their pans.

When the
cakes have cooled, turn them out onto the baking rack and remove the parchment
paper from the bottoms.Use a
serrated knife to slice off the domed part of the cake to make the tops flat.If you are decorating the cake with the
crumbs (see the Note above), reserve these slices for the decoration.

Prepare
the cake crumbs (if using):

Preheat
the oven to 250°.Line a rimmed
baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat.

Break
these reserved slices into several pieces and place them on the prepared baking
sheet.Toast the cake slices till
they have dried out, about 1 hour, turning the pieces over once halfway through
the baking time.

Let cool
completely, then pulverize the toasted cake pieces in a food processor or
blender until they become fine crumbs.Set aside.

Make the
caramel:

Measure
the cream into a glass-measuring cup and stir in the vanilla.Keep the cream nearby as you make the
caramel.

Combine
the sugar, water, salt and honey in a medium saucepan over medium-high
heat.Stir to dissolve the sugar
and bring to a boil.Let it cook,
undisturbed, until the sugar begins to caramelize to a deep amber color, which
will take between 5 to 8 minutes.(Watch it very carefully as it can go from golden to totally burnt if
you’re not looking.)

When the
caramel reaches a dark amber color, pull the pan off the heat and immediately
pour in the cream very carefully.The mixture will bubble quite vigorously at first.Whisk the mixture until it is smooth,
then stir in the lemon juice.Let
it stand for 10 minutes, and then whisk in the butter, 1 tablespoon at a
time.Continue to whisk
periodically as it cools.

Make the
ganache:

Place the
chopped bittersweet chocolate in a large heatproof mixing bowl.Heat the cream in a small heavy
saucepan just before it comes to a boil.Immediately pour the cream over the chopped chocolate, cover the bowl
with plastic wrap and let stand for 5 minutes, letting the hot cream melt the
chocolate.Remove the plastic wrap
and gently stir in concentric circles with a heatproof rubber spatula, until
all the cream and chocolate are incorporated into a silky smooth ganache. Set
aside.

Assemble
the cake:

Using a
serrated knife carefully cut each cake layer horizontally in two to make four
thin layers of cake in total.Place the bottom layer on a serving platter, and arrange four strips of
wax around the cake to protect your serving plate from any dribbles of
chocolate or caramel that might drip down onto it.

Use an
offset spatula (or your favorite butter knife) to spread a thin layer of
caramel evenly over the first layer, about 3+ tablespoons worth.Top this with a very thin layer of the
soft chocolate ganache, spreading very carefully over the caramel.Top with a second cake layer, followed
by another thin layer of caramel and topped with chocolate ganache.Repeat with a third layer of cake,
caramel and ganache.Top with the
fourth cake layer, then refrigerate until the cake seems firm, about 1 to 2
hours.Leave the remaining ganache
at room temperature until you’re ready to finish the cake.

Remove
the cake from the fridge.Frost
the cake with the rest of the ganache, using an offset spatula to thinly coat
the top and sides.

If you
are coating the cake with the toasted crumbs, make sure the ganache is still soft
enough so the crumbs will stick. (If it has hardened, use a kitchen torch—or
even a hair dryer!—to soften it slightly, or put the whole cake in a warm oven
for 10 seconds or so until the chocolate ganache looks shiny.)Sprinkle the crumbs evenly over the top
of the cake, then tilt and turn the cake so that they fall down over the
sides.I propped up my cake
platter about an inch with a folded tea towel so that the cake was slightly
angled, and then I spooned crumbs onto the sides, using my cupped palm to
gently press them into the sides.I continued around the cake this way, carefully turning the platter
until I had covered all the sides of the cake with the crumbs.

Serve the
cake at room temperature.This is
an extremely rich cake, and you can easily get 12 to 16 servings from it,
possibly more if you cut very thin slices.

To store
the cake, cover it tightly with a cake dome and keep it in a cool place for up
to 4 days, no refrigeration necessary.

6 comments:

I really appreciate the photos and step-by-step, Louise. I can't wait to try this cake. J.A. saw me looking at the post and said "OMG, THAT is the cake she made for my birthday and it is to DIE for. That sealed it….. I gotta try this recipe! Thank you!

Hello! I've made the Tartine devil's food cake twice, both times directly as written in the book. Both times it fell in the center. Not horribly, but enough to make me wonder about the recipe's proportions. Using the information in Bakewise by Shirley Corriher, it looks like the sugar content is at the very high end of what might be workable. Did you experience similar problems, and is this why you reduced the sugar?